An interesting aspect of this is that in the lead up to the debate Buckley himself was dismissive of Baldwin and other Black theorists and thinkers at the time. It’s why he looked the fool, he was sure Baldwin was simply a bitter guy with hate for white people.

Idiots are again arguing ‘Kyiv has so few civilian casualties, Russia must be intentionally avoiding them’ So let’s repeat: Kyiv probably has the most experienced AD of any city in the world right now, & The civilians have nearly unrivaled experience with & access to bomb shelters

“Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner accused other companies like Google and Microsoft of ‘reshaping the address bar into an assistant prompt, turning the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship.’” Well, Vivaldi. You had my interest; now you have my attention

Most of the people in this scene would be unable to enter the US under current policy. Madeleine Lebeau pretty much just crossed the border, stayed, and shot the greatest scene in history.

I just taught my lecture course on mid-20th c US history, which starts with Harding and concludes with Nixon. For the first time, I had to pause and stress that those scandals were actually shocking at the time and, what’s more, that Americans actually demanded people be held accountable.

Of all the examples of people dying because somebody inexperienced was in charge, the biggest, most horrifying was Elon Musk and DOGE. No idea what AID did, didn’t care, blew it up and at least 600,000 people died unnecessarily as a consequence. Mass murder out of ignorance and bias. Thanks, Elon.

NYC, this is a very unpleasant flu and you'll be miserable if you catch it. RSV and Covid are here too. Holidays make it far more likely you'll get these. CDC says 4.6 million flu cases have been reported nationally. 49,000 people hospitalizations. 1,900 deaths. You have masks at home. Put'em on!

This is truly the worst argument. I’ve had to scrub clauses like this out of syllabi and literally tell students ‘please just talk to your friends about your ideas.’ considering our historical moment, telling students to talk to friends and share work might be the most radical pedagogy i do.

USAID was cut to “save taxpayer money” and over 600,000 people have died. Americans still can’t afford food, healthcare or housing. Yet Patel gets an “unspecified number” of armoured BMWs with tax payer dollars? How is this not waste fraud and abuse? www.forbes.com/sites/alison...

1970—no fault divorce finally legalized, female suicide rates drop 20% 1974—Equal Credit Opp Act passes, women finally have basic access to finances 1993—Marital rape finally criminalized Call me old school but countering record high suicide, financial imprisonment, & suffocating DV IS Liberation

Actually, it's exactly the duty of an artist. To take a stand through their art.

The only 3 people to benefit from Brexit were Johnson - got prime minister Farage - got a cult following Putin - got a weaker UK and Europe. The rest of us got a poorer, more divided country with less rights and freedoms. Plus now we know reform were on the Russian take.

Woodward & Bernstein's first Watergate scoop literally contains the sentence "The White House did not comment." Gift link: wapo.st/49d2tQr

An essay on Ezra Pound, John Milton, music and poetry in Socrates on the Beach. @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social socratesonthebeach.com/eric-racher

Good morning. I remember a former boss of mine at the bank saying over the phone to one his friends “Look I don’t like it either but mother always said taxes keep the pitchforks at bay. Turns out she was right.”

We need to start talking about the radicalisation of the older generation by the internet: perhaps we should have upper age limits on social media like Facebook, or an age-related ban on owning mobile phones.

"Jabo is not known for terrorist activity and that local Christians coexist peacefully with the Muslim majority" edition.cnn.com/2025/12/26/a...

BREAKING: Major Insurers drop Elbit Systems Following a sustained direct action campaign, initiated by Palestine Action before the group was proscribed, Allianz and Aviva no longer insure Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer. Direct Action gets results. 🧵1/4

The health service is being put at risk because overseas health professionals increasingly see the UK as an “unwelcoming, racist” country, in part because of the government’s tough approach to immigration www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Don't be a collaborator. Don't help the rich people, they never help you. They just call you scum and try to make sure you have nothing.

The most unforgettable compliment on your appearance? My top-3: 1️⃣ Beautiful like a Lithuanian! 2️⃣ Oh, I thought you’re a dentist, you’re so stylish. 3️⃣ You look like an old bitch. (A compliment to a 17yrs old, going to a bar as a minor)

fascinating, i was under the impression that the only reason people would ever learn anything is to get a job and the only thing universities should do is ‘produce graduates’ (and maybe vaccines)… if only we could learn something from this story in the UK

Hundreds of millions of Chinese will be displaced, at least for part of the year, by climate change impacts in coming decades. The temptation to migrate across borders and resettle, under armed PLA protection will be great. Significantly increasing the risk of nuclear conflict.

two things are true: in a remote setting, on a dark night, the deep sky is a truly profound experience that has influenced human philosophy, faith and religion for countless generations and that experience got absolutely rinsed by the first RCA 10 inch television

Well now, would you look at that? A massive, 4-YEAR-LONG study of NEARLY 30 MILLION people in France found that individuals who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine had a 74% LOWER risk of death from severe COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated individuals and ZERO increased risk of all-cause mortality.

Talking to one of these types at a con who asked how I 'got in' with so many 'famous writers' who I'd been talking to and I said "we made friends before anyone knew who we were decades ago by striking up interesting conversations and enjoying each other's company" and he kept re-asking the question.

This is great advice for the academic job market and networking too. Be curious about others but also excited about your weird expertise that you bring to the table. Saddest response I ever heard at a conference party was, “Oh, you wouldn’t be interested in my dissertation; it’s very abstruse.”

The Word Limit Is Not Enough

Donald Trump just bombed a hospital on Christmas. But a cashier at Target said "Happy Holidays" to me when I was doing a return this morning. I have never felt more politically homeless.

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵 Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

Here's something for people interested in #18c history. The personal archive of a member of a global merchant family, with connections in different points of the Spanish and British empires. War between Spain and Britain affected their operations (Nicolás was captured by a British ship).

There are some great suggestions here, but I feel like Elrond deserved at least one F-bomb somewhere. “Men. Men are fucking weak.”

this is the simple answer to people who keep saying NATO expansion matters. Sure, it matters because it presented an obstacle to Russian imperial ambitions. Putin didn't invade because he hated NATO expansion, he hated NATO expansion because he wanted to invade

That time of year again!

a perfect film

Save this, it's perfect.

The only thing ChatGPT ever does.

HANG UP YOUR SPEAR, TODAY YOU WILL BATTLE DESPAIR. AND YOU WILL WIN.

Public discourse on this subject has utterly failed to direct citizens' attention to the actual problem, which is that a commercial industry is assaulting education. So every week we get another thoughtless op-ed on blue books or the death of the college essay, etc etc.

1/ Epstein shared a penthouse with an Iran-Contra lawyer, worked for an Iran-Contra arms dealer, and moved the Iran-Contra planes to Ohio for use by Wexner. Ehud Barak was the head of Israel’s military intelligence during the planning for Iran-Contra, and he supervised the CIA’s first delivery.

10/ After Peres agreed to facilitate Khashoggi’s shipments to Iran, the logistics were handled by Israeli military intelligence. Epstein’s close friend and confidante, Ehud Barak, was the head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate during the planning phases, from April 1983 to Sept 1985.

🎄🏺 Vendredi 2️⃣6️⃣ décembre #calavhist Post Scriptum Et voilà ! 24 textes, 24 exemples montrant que les Gaulois, loin d’être analphabètes, recouraient bien plus largement à l’écrit qu’on ne se le représente parfois.

Le Carré "showed that the so-called end of history following the collapse of the Berlin Wall had not actually brought the triumph of capitalism but a world without a centre, ripe for new forms of colonization and exploitation... history produces no winners" Boehmer/Matthews

The Soviet Union officially dissolved 34 years ago. Many countries have managed to take their future into their own hands; others are still struggling to do so, while a few, run by the same miserable old men, look back on it with nostalgia.

This Is Just To Say I have eaten Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, and who you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me he was delicious so sweet and so cold

A crypocurrency investor based in Thailand made a 9-million-pound donation to a UK political party. An electoral system that allow the rich to buy power is not a democracy. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Okay this is a very stupid and niche ask, but is anybody aware of a resource that has information about military uniforms across Europe ca. 1670-1750 which is searchable by both Nation (eg all Prussian uniforms) and by colour schemes (eg that used colours X and y) or anything like that?

Reposting out of a response thread to remind US people: if you make people mad on the internet, it is a VERY worthwhile investment to add an umbrella policy to your homeowners' or renters' insurance. I recommend a $2m per incident minimum; we increased ours to $5m recently just in case.

The comments on this are all about how sweet it is and I feel insane. Using AI to make fake memories of your grandma with dementia and telling her they happened and then filming her reaction